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INDIANAPOLIS -- The Detroit Lions have already matched their first-half win total from last season.Theyve won seven of nine dating back to last year, apparently found a ground game and an up-tempo offense, and even managed to rally when it looked like hope was lost Sunday afternoon.The usually hard-luck Lions fought back from a missed extra point, and rather than allowing Andrew Luck to steal another win in the final minute, Detroit quarterback Matthew Stafford rallied his team. He led the Lions downfield for Matt Prater to redeem himself with a 43-yard field goal that gave Detroit a wild 39-35 victory at Indianapolis.Something was different about this one, tight end Eric Ebron said after catching one TD pass Sunday. I just felt too confident. I just knew if we got the ball inside the 50, we know our kicker. We just had to get the ball inside the 50.It didnt take Stafford long to work his opening-day magic and give the Lions -- a team that hasnt won an NFL championship since 1957 -- some real hope.Stafford was brilliant Sunday, going 31 of 39 for 340 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. He even outplayed Luck on the Colts home turf. Luck finished 31 of 47 with 385 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, no fumbles, and almost another incredible comeback in his first regular-season start since early November.Detroit hadnt beaten the Colts since 1997 and hadnt won in Indianapolis in 25 years.Four years ago, Luck added his own chapter to the Lions heartbreak when he broke their hearts as his last-play TD pass helped the Colts rally from a 12-point deficit in the final seven minutes.So when Prater missed an extra point and Luck answered with a 6-yard TD pass to Jack Doyle with 37 seconds to go to give Indy a 35-34 lead, some thought it was going to happen again.Not these Lions.I was thinking they gave us too much time, running back Ameer Abdullah said after rushing for 63 yards and catching an 11-yard touchdown pass. That is one of our strong suits. We were a good two-minute team last year. That was very doable, very doable.Stafford, with two timeouts left, found receivers who turned short passes into big gains against Indys injury-depleted secondary, and Prater won it with 8 seconds to go.Some other things key elements from Sunday:LUCK IS BACK: Dont just look at his stat line. Luck had no turnovers, a 119.5 rating and while he did take some hits, he also found a way to avoid more hits. Thats a far cry from how he played last season, when he was 2-7 as a starter and missed seven games with injuries. And it gives the Colts hope that hell be back to his Pro Bowl form in 2016.I think our quarterback obviously was exceptional -- he played one hell of a football game, coach Chuck Pagano said.RUNNING HARD: A year ago, the Lions averaged a league-low 83.4 yards rushing per game and scored only seven rushing touchdowns. On Sunday, they had topped that mark by halftime and finished the day with a solid 116-yard game and topped it off with scores from Theo Riddick and Dwayne Washington. A running game to balance Staffords passing would do wonders for Detroit.INJURIES HURT: The Colts went into the game already down three key players in the secondary. Three more got hurt Sunday. So when Stafford came out for the final series, he had a huge advantage.After the game, Pagano acknowledged the defense ran out of steam before they could finish off the game.LIONS OPTIONS: Even without retired receiver Calvin Johnson, the Lions have plenty of options for Stafford to work with. Four players -- Golden Tate, Riddick, Abdullah and Ebron -- had five or more catches and three of them caught TD passes. And in addition to Abdullah, Riddick added seven carries for 45 yards a score on the ground. 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For the second straight year, Kansas staffer Brennan Bechard cost Bill Self $10,000.Bechard, the Jayhawks director of basketball operations, made a half-court shot during Saturdays Late Night in the Phog to earn Kansas sophomore Jordan Stiers $10,000 from the Jayhawks coach.Two students were randomly chosen to either take the half-court shot themselves or select someone else to shoot it. Last year, Bechard made the shot for student Jerrod Castro.Bechard is a Lawrence native who was a walk-on at Kansas from 2007 to 2009. He averaged 0.5 points in 35 career games.After being mobbed by the KU players and watching Self write out a check to Stiers, Bechard met with the media in attendannce and was asked whether he should have gotten on the court more as a player.ddddddddddddWithout a doubt, Bechard said. And you guys should tell Coach Self that when he comes in here too.I should have played him more, Self told the media. In like full-court situations with one second left on the clock. Put him in just to shoot that shot.Stiers said she planned to use the money to help her grandmother pay bills, according to The Kansas City Star.Kansas played a 20-minute intrasquad scrimmage, and sophomore Carlton Bragg led the Jayhawks with 18 points. ' ' '